Chapter 776 Hawaiian Islands (8)

In the German fleet, looking at the floating dock in the distance that has been put into operation, a staff officer in the bridge of the flagship proposed to Commander Hermann. "Commander, it is only a matter of time to completely occupy Oahu. Should we send troops to Midway Island?"

Midway Island, with an area of ​​only 7 square kilometers, was discovered in 1867. It was under the jurisdiction of the US Navy since 1903. An undersea cable connection station was built in 1905, and an air station and submarine base were built in 1939. It became one of the important naval bases of the United States.

When mentioning Midway Island, most people will think of the famous Battle of Midway during World War II. In World War II, countless battles of all sizes took place. Among these battles, many had an important impact on the entire battlefield of World War II, and the Battle of Midway was recorded in history as a turning point in the Pacific battlefield.

For this war, the Japanese army was well prepared. Almost the entire navy was used in this operation. A total of nearly 200 ships were mobilized, including 8 aircraft carriers, 11 battleships, 22 cruisers, 65 destroyers, and 21 submarines. They were assisted by more than 600 aircraft. The United States only barely gathered 76 ships in total, and nearly one-third of them belonged to the North Pacific, and did not participate in the battle at all.

In the early morning of June 4, 1942, the first wave of Japanese attack aircraft, 36 dive bombers, 36 horizontal bombers and 36 Zero fighters, began to take off from four aircraft carriers at the same time. One hundred and eight carrier-based aircraft set out to attack Midway Island together. The US fighters stationed on Midway Island also took off to meet the invading Japanese fighters. US bombers, including B-17 bombers, also launched a counterattack against the Japanese fleet.

In this way, this mighty war began. Although the Japanese army dispatched much more combat power than the US army, the course of the war was beyond people's expectations. The US army relied on its tenacious combat ability to win the battle and drove all the Japanese troops back to Midway Island.

The battle ended on June 7. In this five-day war, the Japanese army suffered heavy casualties. A total of 3,500 people were killed in this war. Four aircraft carriers were sunk, a heavy cruiser was sunk, and nearly 280 fighters were lost. Compared with the Japanese army, the US army suffered much less losses. Only 307 people were killed, an aircraft carrier and a destroyer were lost, and 147 fighters were lost.

The significance of the Battle of Midway Island is extremely significant, because in this battle, the Japanese army suffered heavy losses and began to gradually lose the strategic initiative in the Pacific battlefield. The situation began to turn in favor of the Allies, and laid a solid foundation for the Allies to achieve the final victory later.

Commander Hermann looked at the others. "What do you think?"

The other staff officers all agreed to send troops to Midway Island. After all, the battle of Oahu was already in sight of victory. They had so many warships gathered here doing nothing, so they might as well take the opportunity to capture Midway Island.

Seeing this, Commander Hermann nodded and ordered. "Dispatch three battleships and four aircraft carriers to Midway Island."

"Ah?!" The staff officers were shocked. They had a total of five battleships and six aircraft carriers. The commander actually transferred so many warships at once. Isn't it a bit risky?

Commander Hermann smiled. "Maybe this can attract those timid Americans."

The staff officers suddenly realized and immediately executed the order to dispatch three battleships, four aircraft carriers and several cruisers and destroyers to Midway Island. Commander Wilson on Oahu Island also discovered the abnormality of the German fleet. Although he didn't know the German intentions, he still passed the news back to the commander of the Pacific Fleet.

At this time, Nimitz was discussing the construction of Pacific defense fortifications with a group of staff.

Yesterday, he was deeply worried after learning that the German army had a hovercraft with strong carrying capacity. This morning, he received news that the German army had built two docks overnight, which made this worry worse. If the German army wants to attack the US mainland in the future, relying on these hovercrafts and the technology of quickly building docks, they only need to find a flat landing point to deploy a large number of troops, making it difficult for the US military to defend.

He was a little impatient and immediately summoned the staff to start working on the Pacific defense fortifications.

Interestingly, Nimitz's defense plan is somewhat similar to the Atlantic Fortress Plan of the German Army in the original time and space. The German Atlantic Defense Line began to be built in March 1942, mainly to prevent the Allied forces from landing on the European continent. It was organized by Fritz Toth, built by Fritz Toth and Albert Speer, and then strengthened by Rommel. Mustache and Goebbels once strongly advocated it and called it the "Unbreakable Defense Line".

The total length of the defense line was about 4,000 kilometers, and the planned engineering work was very large. At the peak of the project, the German army mobilized 260,000 people, invested 13 million tons of concrete and 120,000 tons of steel, and built projects at 15,000 locations. By the beginning of the Normandy Landing on June 6, 1944, only part of the defense line had been completed, with only 68% of the planned engineering along the Calais Strait and only 18% of the planned engineering along the Normandy coast.

The Atlantic Wall is a linear position engineering system without a deep and echelon configuration. In the areas that are expected to become the targets of the Allied offensive, several independent and solid fortified areas are built, equipped with heavy weapons, and can accommodate several battalions of garrison troops at the largest, and only squads and platoons at the smallest. In most sections of the entire line, field fortification is relatively weak. The entire line attaches great importance to the setting of obstacles. It is planned to bury 60 million mines in the vast areas of the coastline. By June 1944, only 6 million mines were buried.

On the beaches where it is expected to be most likely to land, several belts are set up by combining explosive obstacles with fortification obstacles, and the combination of obstacles and firepower is considered. Before the Normandy Landing, the Atlantic Wall was once promoted as insurmountable. On the one hand, this was because the German High Command wanted to confuse the enemy through propaganda; on the other hand, the British and American High Commands also echoed the statement that the Atlantic Wall fortifications were indestructible in order to create an excuse for delaying the opening of a second battlefield. The facts of the Normandy Landing proved that the Atlantic Wall was not an insurmountable barrier.

Just as everyone in the conference room was discussing fiercely, Nimitz received a telegram from Oahu.

"The German fleet was separated? Only two battleships and two aircraft carriers are left?" After reading this telegram, the first thought that flashed in Nimitz's mind was that the Germans dug a pit and waited for them to jump in.